Microsoft Security Bulletin MS12-059 - Important

General Information

Executive Summary

This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Office. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Visio file. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

This security update is rated Important for all supported editions of Microsoft Visio 2010 and Microsoft Visio Viewer 2010. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.

The security update addresses the vulnerabilities by correcting the way that Microsoft Office Visio validates data when parsing specially crafted Visio files. For more information about the vulnerabilities, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) subsection for the specific vulnerability entry under the next section, Vulnerability Information.

Recommendation. Customers can configure automatic updating to check online for updates from Microsoft Update by using the Microsoft Update service. Customers who have automatic updating enabled and configured to check online for updates from Microsoft Update typically will not need to take any action because this security update will be downloaded and installed automatically. Customers who have not enabled automatic updating need to check for updates from Microsoft Update and install this update manually. For information about specific configuration options in automatic updating in supported editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 294871. For information about automatic updating in supported editions of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2, see Understanding Windows automatic updating.

For administrators and enterprise installations, or end users who want to install this security update manually, Microsoft recommends that customers apply the update at the earliest opportunity using update management software, or by checking for updates using the Microsoft Update service.

See also the section, Detection and Deployment Tools and Guidance, later in this bulletin.

Known Issues. None

Affected and Non-Affected Software

The following software have been tested to determine which versions or editions are affected. Other versions or editions are either past their support life cycle or are not affected. To determine the support life cycle for your software version or edition, visit Microsoft Support Lifecycle.

[1]Although the rereleased update (KB2687508) replaces the original update (KB2597171) for all affected editions of Microsoft Visio 2010, customers who have successfully installed the KB2597171 update do not need to install the KB2687508 update. For more information, see the update FAQ.

[2]The Microsoft Office update, MS11-089, applied to systems running Microsoft Visio 2010 even though this software was listed as non-affected in the MS11-089 bulletin.

In order to address an issue involving specific digital certificates that were generated by Microsoft without proper timestamp attributes, Microsoft rereleased this bulletin to replace the KB2597171 update with the KB2687508 update for all affected editions of Microsoft Visio 2010. For more information, see Microsoft Security Advisory 2749655.

Although the rereleased update (KB2687508) replaces the original update (KB2687323), customers who already successfully installed the original update do not need to install the rereleased update.

I already successfully installed the original KB2597171update. Do I need to apply the rereleased update package (KB2687508) released on December 11, 2012?No. The rereleased update (KB2687508) only applies to systems running the affected software if the corresponding original update (KB2597171) is not already installed. Customers who already successfully installed the original updates do not need to take any action and will not be offered the rereleased updates.

Note In the case where an original update is already installed, and then the rereleased update is installed on the same system, the installer generates a message stating that the update is already installed. After the message is generated, the KB number for the rereleased update will replace the KB number for the original update in the list of installed updates. For more information about this installation behavior, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 2720573.

Where are the file information details?Refer to the reference tables in the Security Update Deployment section for the location of the file information details.

Where are the hashes of the security updates?The SHA1 and SHA2 hashes of the security updates can be used to verify the authenticity of downloaded security update packages. For the hash information pertaining to this update, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 2733918.

The Microsoft Office component discussed in this article is part of the Microsoft Office Suite that I have installed on my system; however, I did not choose to install this specific component. Will I be offered this update?Yes, if the component discussed in this bulletin was delivered with the version of the Microsoft Office Suite installed on your system, the system will be offered updates for it whether the component is installed or not. The detection logic used to scan for affected systems is designed to check for updates for all components that were delivered with the particular Microsoft Office Suite and to offer the updates to a system. Users who choose not to apply an update for a component that is not installed, but is delivered with their version of the Microsoft Office Suite, will not increase the security risk of that system. On the other hand, users who do choose to install the update will not have a negative impact on the security or performance of a system.

Does the offer to update a non-vulnerable version of Microsoft Office constitute an issue in the Microsoft update mechanism?No, the update mechanism is functioning correctly in that it detects a lower version of the files on the system than in the update package and thus, offers the update.

I am using an older release of the software discussed in this security bulletin. What should I do?The affected software listed in this bulletin have been tested to determine which releases are affected. Other releases are past their support life cycle. For more information about the product lifecycle, visit the Microsoft Support Lifecycle website.

Customers who require custom support for older software must contact their Microsoft account team representative, their Technical Account Manager, or the appropriate Microsoft partner representative for custom support options. Customers without an Alliance, Premier, or Authorized Contract can contact their local Microsoft sales office. For contact information, visit the Microsoft Worldwide Information website, select the country in the Contact Information list, and then click Go to see a list of telephone numbers. When you call, ask to speak with the local Premier Support sales manager. For more information, see the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy FAQ.

Vulnerability Information

The following severity ratings assume the potential maximum impact of the vulnerability. For information regarding the likelihood, within 30 days of this security bulletin's release, of the exploitability of the vulnerability in relation to its severity rating and security impact, please see the Exploitability Index in the August bulletin summary. For more information, see Microsoft Exploitability Index.

This is a remote code execution vulnerability. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code as the current user. If the current user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker could take complete control of the affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

To view this vulnerability as a standard entry in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures list, see CVE-2012-1888.

Mitigation refers to a setting, common configuration, or general best-practice, existing in a default state, that could reduce the severity of exploitation of a vulnerability. The following mitigating factors may be helpful in your situation:

An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

The vulnerability cannot be exploited automatically through email. For an attack to be successful, a user must open an attachment that is sent in an email message.

In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a website that contains a specially crafted Visio file that is used to attempt to exploit this vulnerability. In addition, compromised websites and websites that accept or host user-provided content or advertisements could contain specially crafted content that could exploit this vulnerability. In all cases, however, an attacker would have no way to force users to visit these websites. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to visit the website, typically by getting them to click a link in an email message or Instant Messenger message that takes users to the attacker’s website, and convince them to open the specially crafted Visio file.

Workaround refers to a setting or configuration change that does not correct the underlying vulnerability but would help block known attack vectors before you apply the update. Microsoft has tested the following workarounds and states in the discussion whether a workaround reduces functionality:

Do not open Office files that you receive from untrusted sources or that you receive unexpectedly from trusted sources

Do not open Visio files that you receive from untrusted sources or that you receive unexpectedly from trusted sources. This vulnerability could be exploited when a user opens a specially crafted file.

What is the scope of the vulnerability?This is a remote code execution vulnerability.

What causes the vulnerability?The vulnerability exists when Microsoft Visio does not properly handle memory when parsing specially crafted Visio files.

What might an attacker use the vulnerability to do?An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code as the current user. If the current user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker could take complete control of the affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

How could an attacker exploit the vulnerability?This vulnerability requires that a user open a specially crafted Visio file with an affected version of Microsoft Visio.

In an email attack scenario, an attacker could exploit the vulnerability by sending a specially crafted Visio file to the user and by convincing the user to open the file.

In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker would have to host a website that contains a specially crafted Visio file that is used to attempt to exploit this vulnerability. In addition, compromised websites and websites that accept or host user-provided content could contain specially crafted content that could exploit this vulnerability. An attacker would have no way to force users to visit a specially crafted website. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to visit the website, typically by getting them to click a link that takes them to the attacker's site, and then convince them to open a specially crafted Visio file.

What systems are primarily at risk from the vulnerability?Systems where Microsoft Office Visio is used, including workstations and terminal servers, are primarily at risk. Servers could be at more risk if administrators allow users to log on to servers and to run programs. However, best practices strongly discourage allowing this.

What does the update do?This update addresses the vulnerability by correcting the way that Microsoft Office Visio validates data when parsing specially crafted Visio files.

When this security bulletin was issued, had this vulnerability been publicly disclosed?No. Microsoft received information about this vulnerability through coordinated vulnerability disclosure.

When this security bulletin was issued, had Microsoft received any reports that this vulnerability was being exploited?No. Microsoft had not received any information to indicate that this vulnerability had been publicly used to attack customers when this security bulletin was originally issued.

For customers of Microsoft Office for Mac, Microsoft AutoUpdate for Mac can help keep your Microsoft software up to date. For more information about using Microsoft AutoUpdate for Mac, see Check for software updates automatically.

Finally, security updates can be downloaded from the Microsoft Update Catalog. The Microsoft Update Catalog provides a searchable catalog of content made available through Windows Update and Microsoft Update, including security updates, drivers and service packs. By searching using the security bulletin number (such as, "MS12-001"), you can add all of the applicable updates to your basket (including different languages for an update), and download to the folder of your choosing. For more information about the Microsoft Update Catalog, see the Microsoft Update Catalog FAQ.

Detection and Deployment Guidance

Microsoft provides detection and deployment guidance for security updates. This guidance contains recommendations and information that can help IT professionals understand how to use various tools for detection and deployment of security updates. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 961747.

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) lets administrators scan local and remote systems for missing security updates as well as common security misconfigurations. For more information, see Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer.

The following table provides the MBSA detection summary for this security update.

Software

MBSA

Microsoft Office 2010 Service Pack 1 (32-bit editions)

Yes

Microsoft Office 2010 Service Pack 1 (64-bit editions)

Yes

Microsoft Visio Viewer 2010 Service Pack 1 (32-bit Edition)

Yes

Microsoft Visio Viewer 2010 Service Pack 1 (64-bit Edition)

Yes

Note For customers using legacy software not supported by the latest release of MBSA, Microsoft Update, and Windows Server Update Services, please visit Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer and reference the Legacy Product Support section on how to create comprehensive security update detection with legacy tools.

The following table provides the SMS detection and deployment summary for this security update.

Software

SMS 2003 with ITMU

System Center Configuration Manager

Microsoft Office 2010 Service Pack 1 (32-bit editions)

Yes

Yes

Microsoft Office 2010 Service Pack 1 (64-bit editions)

Yes

Yes

Microsoft Visio Viewer 2010 Service Pack 1 (32-bit Edition)

Yes

Yes

Microsoft Visio Viewer 2010 Service Pack 1 (64-bit Edition)

Yes

Yes

Note Microsoft discontinued support for SMS 2.0 on April 12, 2011. For SMS 2003, Microsoft also discontinued support for the Security Update Inventory Tool (SUIT) on April 12, 2011. Customers are encouraged to upgrade to System Center Configuration Manager. For customers remaining on SMS 2003 Service Pack 3, the Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates (ITMU) is also an option.

Note If you have used an Administrative Installation Point (AIP) for deploying Office 2003, you may not be able to deploy the update using SMS if you have updated the AIP from the original baseline. For more information, see the Office Administrative Installation Point heading in this section.

Office Administrative Installation Point

If you installed your application from a server location, the server administrator must update the server location with the administrative update and deploy that update to your system.

Note If you plan to manage security updates centrally, use Windows Server Update Services. For more information about how to deploy security updates for Microsoft Office, visit the Windows Server Update Services website.

Update Compatibility Evaluator and Application Compatibility Toolkit

Updates often write to the same files and registry settings required for your applications to run. This can trigger incompatibilities and increase the time it takes to deploy security updates. You can streamline testing and validating Windows updates against installed applications with the Update Compatibility Evaluator components included with Application Compatibility Toolkit.

The Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) contains the necessary tools and documentation to evaluate and mitigate application compatibility issues before deploying Windows Vista, a Windows Update, a Microsoft Security Update, or a new version of Windows Internet Explorer in your environment.

For detection and deployment, see the earlier section, Detection and Deployment Tools and Guidance.

Restart Requirement

Restart required?

In some cases, this update does not require a restart. If the required files are being used, this update will require a restart. If this behavior occurs, a message appears that advises you to restart.

To help reduce the chance that a restart will be required, stop all affected services and close all applications that may use the affected files prior to installing the security update. For more information about the reasons why you may be prompted to restart, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 887012.

Deployment Information

Installing the Update

You can install the update from the appropriate download link in the Affected and Non-Affected Software section. If you installed your application from a server location, the server administrator must instead update the server location with the administrative update and deploy that update to your system. For more information about Administrative Installation Points, refer to the Office Administrative Installation Point information in the Detection and deployment Tools and Guidance subsection.

This security update requires that Windows Installer 3.1 or later version be installed on the system.

To install the 3.1 or later version of Windows Installer, visit one of the following Microsoft websites:

Specifies quiet mode, or suppresses prompts, when files are being extracted.

/norestart

Suppresses restarting the system if the update requires a restart.

/forcerestart

Automatically restarts the system after applying the update, regardless of whether the update requires the restart.

/extract

Extracts the files without installing them. You are prompted for a target folder.

/extract:<path>

Overrides the install command that is defined by author. Specifies the path and name of the Setup.inf or .exe file.

/lang:<LCID>

Forces the use of a specific language, when the update package supports that language.

/log:<log file>

Enables logging, by both Vnox and Installer, during the update installation.

Note You can combine these switches into one command. For backward compatibility, the security update also supports many of the setup switches that the earlier version of the Setup program uses. For more information about the supported installation switches, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 262841.

Removing the Update

To remove this security update, use the Add or Remove Programs item in Control Panel.

Note When you remove this update, you may be prompted to insert the 2007 Microsoft Office CD in the CD drive. Additionally, you may not have the option to uninstall the update from the Add or Remove Programs item in Control Panel. There are several possible causes for this issue. For more information about the removal, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 903771.

Verifying that the Update Has Been Applied

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer

To verify that a security update has been applied to an affected system, you may be able to use the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) tool. See the section, Detection and Deployment Tools and Guidance, earlier in this bulletin for more information.

File Version Verification

Because there are several editions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your system. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.

Click Start and then enter an update file name in the Start Search box.

When the file appears under Programs, right-click the file name and click Properties.

On the General tab, compare the file size with the file information tables provided in the bulletin KB article.

Note Depending on the edition of the operating system, or the programs that are installed on your system, some files that are listed in the file information table may not be installed.

You can also click the Details tab and compare information, such as file version and date modified, with the file information tables provided in the bulletin KB article.

Note Attributes other than the file version may change during installation. Comparing other file attributes to the information in the file information table is not a supported method of verifying that the update has been applied. Also, in certain cases, files may be renamed during installation. If the file or version information is not present, use one of the other available methods to verify update installation.

Finally, you can also click the Previous Versions tab and compare file information for the previous version of the file with the file information for the new, or updated, version of the file.

Other Information

Acknowledgments

Microsoft thanks the following for working with us to help protect customers:

Disclaimer

The information provided in the Microsoft Knowledge Base is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Microsoft disclaims all warranties, either express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall Microsoft Corporation or its suppliers be liable for any damages whatsoever including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of business profits or special damages, even if Microsoft Corporation or its suppliers have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages so the foregoing limitation may not apply.

Revisions

V1.0 (August 14, 2012): Bulletin published.

V2.0 (December 11, 2012): Rereleased bulletin to replace the KB2597171 update with the KB2687508 update for all affected editions of Microsoft Visio 2010.